This book is the result of a large-scale research undertaking "Trade Routes of the Near East", examining Egyptian-Levantine interaction in the 4th Millennium BC. Chapters explore many issues related to copper and trade in the long period covering the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages, but also Roman period, with a special extension to present metallurgical practices in the African interior. A wide range of data discussed here was collected from across the eastern Mediterranean region including Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus and Greece.

In this book Philip Bes summarises the results of his PhD thesis (Catholic University of Leuven) on the analysis of production trends and complex, quantified distribution patterns of the principal traded sigillatas and slipped table wares in the Roman East, from the early Empire to Late Antiquity (e.g. Italian Sigillata, Eastern Sigillata A, B and C, Candarli ware, Phocean Red Slip Ware/LRC, Cypriot Red Slip Ware/LRD and African Red Slip Wares). He draws on his own work in Sagalassos and Boeotia, as well as an exhaustive review of archaeological publications of ceramic data. The analysis compares major regional blocks, documenting coastal as well as inland sites, and offers an interpretation of these complex data in terms of the economy and possible distribution mechanisms.

An examination of archaeology in Jordan and Palestine, Competitive Archaeology in Jordan explores how antiquities have been used to build narratives and national identities. Tracing Jordanian history, and the importance of Jerusalem within that history, Corbett analyzes how both foreign and indigenous powers have engaged in a competition over ownership of antiquities and the power to craft history and geography based on archaeological artifacts. She begins with the Ottoman and British Empires—under whose rule the institutions and borders of modern Jordan began to take shape—asking how they used antiquities in varying ways to advance their imperial projects. Corbett continues through the Mandate era and the era of independence of an expanded Hashemite Kingdom, examining how the Hashemites and other factions, both within and beyond Jordan, have tried to define national identity by drawing upon antiquities. Competitive Archaeology in Jordan traces a complex history through the lens of archaeology’s power as a modern science to create and give value to spaces, artifacts, peoples, narratives, and academic disciplines. It thus considers the role of archaeology in realizing Jordan’s modernity—drawing its map; delineating sacred and secular spaces; validating taxonomies of citizens; justifying legal frameworks and institutions of state; determining logos of the nation for display on stamps, currency, and in museums; and writing history. Framing Jordan’s history in this way, Corbett illustrates the manipulation of archaeology by governments, institutions, and individuals to craft narratives, draw borders, and create national identities.

This volume contains a selection of articles based on papers presented at an international workshop held at Frankfurt am Main, Germany from the 27th to the 28th of October, 2012. The workshop was organized by members of the Research Training Group 1576 "Value and Equivalence" and the Tell Chuera Project. The articles address a wide range of materials (lithics, terracotta figurines, domestic architecture and installations, glyptics) and topics (the organization of space within residential areas, the economic base of 3rd millennium settlements, an anthropological perspective on the study of domestic remains) which are related to the study of 3rd millennium BCE houses and households in northern Mesopotamia. Many articles focus on recent archaeological excavations and observations from Tell Chuera, but hitherto unpublished field data from other sites (Tell Mozan, Tell Hazna, and Kharab Sayyar) are also presented. The archaeological focus of the volume is broadened by a philological treatise dealing with the study of households in southern Mesopotamia.

This book surveys four thousand years of pottery production and presents totally unexpected fresh information, using technical and analytical methods. It provides a study of ancient pottery of Jerusalem, from the earliest settlement to the medieval city and brings to light important aspects that cannot be discovered by the commonly accepted morphological pottery descriptions. New insights include the discovery that third millennium BCE pottery appears to have been produced by nomadic families, middle Bronze Age ceramics were made by professional potters in the Wadi Refaim, the pottery market of the Iron Age II pottery cannot be closely dated and is still produced during the first centuries after the exile, and the new shapes are made by Greek immigrant potters. The book contains a chapter on the systematics of ceramic studies and numerous notes about the potters themselves.

This book is the first investigation of the relationship between Palmyra and its surrounding territory from the Roman to the early Islamic period since D. Schlumberger's pioneer campaigns in the mountains northwest of Palmyra in the late 1930s. It discusses the agricultural potential of the hinterland, its role in the food supply of the city, and the interaction with the nomadic networks on the Syrian dry steppe. The investigation is based on an extensive joint Syrian-Norwegian surface survey north of Palmyra in 2008, 2010 and 2011 and on studies of satellite imagery. It contains a gazetteer of 70 new sites, which include numerous villages, estates, forts, stations and water management systems.

This book is intended as an introduction to the archaeology of the easternmost regions of Greek settlement in the Hellenistic period, from the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late fourth century BC, through to the last Greek-named kings of north-western India somewhere around the late first century BC, or even early first century AD. The Far East of the Hellenistic world a region comprising areas of what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and the former-Soviet Central Asian Republics is best known from the archaeological remains of sites such as Ai Khanoum, which attest the endurance of Greek cultural and political presence in the region in the three centuries following the conquests of Alexander the Great. The chapters here survey the available evidence, including Latin, Greek, Chinese and Indian texts, as well as archaeology, survey the secondary literature, and ponder themes of identity, cultural contact and ethnicity.

This research takes an integrative approach to the study of Hellenistic cult and cultic practices in an important part of western Asia by employing a combination of archaeological, numismatic and historical evidence. Although any thorough investigation of Seleukid religion would prove illuminating in itself, this research uses religion as a lens through which to explore the processes of acculturation and rejection within a colonial context. It discusses the state attitude towards, and manipulation of, both Hellenic and indigenous beliefs and places this within a framework developed out of a series of case studies exploring evidence for religion at a regional level. The study outlines the development of religious practices and expression in the region which formed the birthplace of the modern world's three most influential monotheistic religions.

Contents: Mikhail Abramzon: A hoard of bronze Pontic and Bosporan coins of the reign of Mithradates VI from Phanagoria, 2007; Anna Alexandropoulou: The Late Classical and Hellenistic pottery of Sinope and Amisos; William Anderson and Abby Robinson: Marginal or mainstream? The character of settlement in Late Roman Paphlagonia; Sumer Atasoy: New exploration of the southern Black Sea coast: Filyos - Tios; Eka Avaliani: Ancient Anatolia: cultural mosaic, not melting pot; Lucretiu Mihailescu-Birliba: Les Pontobithyniens en Dacie romaine; Thomas Bruggemann: Paphlagonia between Goths, Sasanids and Arabs (3rd-8th centuries AD); Ertekin Doksanalti and Gungor Karauguz: The Hellenistic and Roman ceramics from field surveys at Devrek and its environs, west Black Sea region of Turkey; Sevket Donmez: A new excavation in Pontus: Amasya-Oluz Hoyuk. Preliminary results for the Hellenistic period and Iron Age layers; Dimitris P. Drakoulis: Regional transformations and the settlement network of the coastal Pontic provinces in the Early Byzantine period; Cristian E. Ghita: The Pontic army: integrating Persian and Macedonian traditions; J.G.F. Hind: Milesian and Sinopean traders in Colchis (Greeks at Phasis and the ransoming of shipwrecked sailors); Monica M. Jackson: The Amisos Treasure: a Hellenistic tomb from the age of Mithradates Eupator; Gungor Karauguz, Ozsen Corumluoglu, Ibrahim Kalayci and Ibrahim Asri: A 3D digital photogrammetric model of a Roman 'birdrock monument' in the north-west region of Anatolia; Merab Khalvashi and Emzar Kakhidze: Sinopean amphorae in Apsarus; Liudmila G. Khrushkova: Chersonesus in the Crimea: Early Byzantine capitals with fine-toothed acanthus leaves; Liudmila G. Khrushkova and Dmitri E. Vasilinenko: Basilica Lesnoe-1 near Sochi in the north-eastern Black Sea region; Sergei A. Kovalenko The Hestiatorion of the Chaika settlement in the north-western Crimea; Ergun Lafli und Eva Christof: Drei neu entdeckte Phallossteine aus der Chora von Hadrianopolis; Boris Agomedov and Sergey Didenko: Red Slip Ware in Chernyakhov culture; Iulian Moga: Strabo on the Persian Artemis and Men in Pontus and Lydia; Kyrylo Myzgin: Finds of Roman coins of Asia Minor provincial mintage in the territory of Chernyakhov Culture; Alexander V. Podossinov: Bithynia, Paphlagonia and Pontus on the Tabula Peutingeriana; Jean-Louis Podvin: Cultes isiaques en Pont et Paphlagonie; Elena A. Popova and Tatiana V. Egorova: Investigation of the Late Scythian cinder heap on the site of Chaika near Evpatoria in the north-west Crimea; Annette Teffeteller: Strategies of continuity in the construction of ethnic and cultural identity: the lineage and role of Zeus Stratios in Pontus and Paphlagonia; Bruno Tripodi: Paphlagonian horseman in Cunaxa (Xenophon Anabasis 1. 8. 5); Gocha R. Tsetskhladze: The southern Black Sea coast and its hinterland: an ethno-cultural perspective; Maya Vassileva: The rock-cut monuments of Phrygia, Paphlagonia and Thrace: a comparative overview; Jose Vela Tejada: Stasis and polemos at Pontus in the first half of the 4th century BC according to Aeneas Tacticus: the Datames' siege of Sinope; Fred C. Woudhuizen; The saga of the Argonauts: a reflex of Thraco-Phrygian maritime encroachment on the southern Pontic littoral; Luca Zavagno: Amastris (Paphlagonia): a study in Byzantine urban history between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages; Elena A. Zinko: Peculiarities of the paintings of Bosporan crypts of the 3rd-6th centuries AD; Two Appendices: Pessinus in Phrygia: Brief Preliminary Report of the 2010 Field Season.

‘Tanbûr Long-Necked Lutes Along the Silk Road and Beyond’ explores the origin, history, construction, and playing techniques of tanbûrs, a musical instrument widely used over vast territories and over many centuries. The diffusion of the tanbûr into the musical cultures along the Silk Road resulted in a variety of tanbûrs with two or more, occasionally doubled or tripled courses, a varying number and variously tuned frets, each having its own characteristic sound, playing technique, and repertory. Since the last century, tanbûrs spread beyond the Silk Road while new versions continue to appear due to changing musical and tonal demands made on them. Similar or identical instruments are also known by other names, such as saz or bağlama, dotâr or dutâr, setâr, dömbra, and dambura.

‘Moving on from Ebla, I crossed the Euphrates’ collects six articles by leading international scholars on the culture of the Assyrian world as a homage to Paolo Matthiae on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Paolo Matthiae is known internationally for the discovery of the site of ancient Ebla in Syria, but he also wrote groundbreaking books and scientific contributions about the Assyrians, predominantly from an art historical perspective. The articles deal with different aspects of this culture, with innovative and sometimes unexpected points of view, including the reception of some elements of the Assyrian culture in the contemporary world.

Prehistoric Fisherfolk of Oman reports on excavations at the prehistoric site Ras Al-Hamra RH-5, located on a large promontory in the Qurum area of Muscat, conducted by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Oman with support from the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism. The site dates from the late fifth to the end of the fourth millennia BC and comprises an accumulation of superimposed food discards deriving from continuous and repeated subsistence activities such as fishing, collecting shells, hunting and herding. Dwellings and household installations, including objects of daily use and ornaments, have also been found throughout the occupation sequence. Excavations at RH-5 yielded unprecedented data on the economic and social dynamics of Neolithic societies in eastern Arabia. The exploitation of different ecological niches supplied all the necessary requirements for year-round sedentary human occupation. The lifestyle of fisher-gatherer communities during the Middle Holocene represents a fundamental step of the neolithisation process in Oman.

A handmade pottery with incised decoration found in small quantities amongst the wheelmade waresin the Nile Valley between the Fifth and the First Cataract and in the Eastern Desert. Discussses the historical background, the clay, the provenance suggested by the chemical inclusions, use indicated by lipid residues, and the cultural origins of the pots.

The Seminar for Arabian Studies has come a long way since 1968 when it was first convened, yet it remains the principal international academic forum for research on the Arabian Peninsula. This is clearly reflected in the ever-increasing number of researchers from all over the world who come each year to the three-day Seminar to present and discuss their latest research and fieldwork. The Seminar has covered, and continues to cover, an extensive range of diverse subjects that include anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art, epigraphy, ethnography, history, language, linguistics, literature, numismatics, theology, and more, from the earliest times to the present day or, in the fields of political and social history, to around the end of the Ottoman Empire (1922/1923). Papers presented at the Seminar have all been subjected to an intensive review process before they are accepted for publication in the Proceedings. The rigorous nature of the reviews undertaken by a range of specialists ensures that the highest academic standards are maintained. A supplementary volume, 'Languages, scripts and their uses in ancient North Arabia' edited by M.C.A. Macdonald (ISBN 9781784918996, Archaeopress, 2018), is also available containing the proceedings from the special session held during the seminar on 5 August 2017.

The Genesis of the Textile Industry from Adorned Nudity to Ritual Regalia documents and evaluates the changing role of fibre crafts and their evolving techniques of manufacture and also their ever-increasing wider application in the lives of the inhabitants of the earliest villages of the Ancient Near East. It is a broad-spectrum enquiry into fibre working in a broad swathe from Mesopotamia across Persia and Anatolia to the Nile Valley. It focuses, however, on the southern Levant from incipient sedentism in the Natufian culture, c. 13,000 cal BCE to the Ghassulian culture, c. 4500-3800/3700 cal BCE. This is the first comprehensive study addressing the fibre technologies of the southern Levant on a long chronological axis. Currently, fibre crafts play only a minor role in archaeological thinking. This research demonstrates the magnitude and also the indispensable role that fibre crafts have played in the quotidian events, activities and practices of the inhabitants of the region. It has created an awareness of the substantial, often invisible, presence of fibre-craft products which was hitherto lacking in archaeological thought.

This volume - in Italian, with an English summary - presents the 1930s archaeological photo-albums of John Alfred Spranger (1889-1968). Engineer, topographer, mountain climber, archaeologist, art collector and photographer, Spranger traveled extensively - in the Balkans, Greece, Egypt and the Near East, Canada, Central Asia - and left several photo albums detailing archaeological explorations as well as travel memories. In the 1920s-1930s, he took part in a number of Etruscan excavations in Tuscany, together with Harry Burton, the photographer of the Tomb of Tutankhamun. With a pioneering approach, they used the photo-camera to document the excavation work in progress. The albums are dedicated to a trip to Egypt in 1929, a trip to Mesopotamia (Iraq) in 1936 and some surveys and excavations carried out in Etruria (Tuscany, Italy) in 1929-1935. Spranger's photos are particularly meaningful, especially because he combined his skills in using the camera with a great expertise in archaeology and topography. His photos make it possible to understand, after almost a century, how many Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Etruscan sites appeared at the time of their first excavations | Il volume - in italiano con riassunto in inglese - e dedicato agli album fotografici realizzati negli anni Trenta del Novecento da John Alfred Spranger (1889-1968): fu ingegnere, topografo, alpinista, archeologo, collezionista e fotografo. Viaggio molto - nei Balcani, in Grecia, in Egitto e nel Vicino Oriente, in Canda e in Asia centrale - lasciandoci molti album fotografici dedicati ai suoi viaggi e alle sue ricerche archeologiche. Negli anni Venti e Trenta partecipo a ricognizioni e scavi archeologici in Toscana, assieme a Harry Burton, il fotografo della Tomba di Tutankhamun. Con un approccio pionieristico, ambedue sperimentarono l'uso della macchina fotografica per documentare lo scavo archeologico. Gli album presentati sono dedicati a due viaggi, uno in Egitto nel 1929 e l'altro in Mesopotamia (Iraq) nel 1936, e a ricognizioni e scavi condotti in siti etruschi della Toscana tra 1929 e 1935. Le fotografie di Spranger sono particolarmente significative perche riflettono sia la competenza del fotografo che quella del topografo e dell'archeologo, e ci permettono di capire, a quasi un secolo di distanza, quale fosse l'aspetto di numerosi siti egizi, mesopotamici ed etruschi, al momento della loro prima indagine archeologica.

The revolutionary cult of sun-worship that Akhenaten introduced, and such contentious issues as the role of Nefertiti as a goddess, the dominant part played by plague during Akhenaten's reign, and likely events of the king's twilight years are treated with new insight and set within the framework of an authoritative overview of the entire period.

Bridging Times and Spaces is composed of papers written by colleagues of Professor Gregory E. Areshian on the occasion his 65th birthday reflecting the breadth and diversity of his scholarly contributions. The range of presented papers covers topics in Near Eastern, Mediterranean and Armenian archaeology, theory of interpretation in archaeology and art history, interdisciplinary history, historical linguistics, art history, and comparative mythology. The volume opens with an extensive interview given by Gregory Areshian, in which Gregory outlines the pathways of his academic career, archaeological discoveries, different intellectual quests, and the organic connections between research questions that he explored across different social sciences and the humanities, stressing the importance of periodizations in interdisciplinary history as well as his views on holism and interdisciplinary studies.

This book brings together the main discussions that took place at an international conference on the iconology of war in the ancient Near East, a subject never addressed at an international meeting before. The articles span the 3rd to the 1st millennium, with a special stress on the Neo-Assyrian period. They try to respond to many questions about representations of war: what is 'warrior' iconography and on what basis it can be defined? Did the war scenes follow a specific directory whereby they adopted the most varied forms? Can we determine the most usual conditions for the creation of pictures of wartime (such as periods of great change)? Were the war scenes referring to specific historical events or were they generic representations? What can a society accept from the representations of war? What did war images silence and why? What is a 'just' punishment for enemies and thus the 'just' representation of it? Who has control of the representation and therefore also the memory of war? Who is the real subject of war representations? What emerges from all the articles published here is the relevance of textual data in any analysis of iconological material. And this is not only true for iconology, but for all the archaeological material discovered at historical sites.

The burgeoning of archaeological research in the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq is one of the great success stories of world archaeology today. For twenty years it was impossible for western archaeologists to work in Iraq, and for most of this time there were also heavy restrictions on the activity of Iraqi archaeologists. In addition to this Kurdistan remains a region never systematically explored. The conference presented the first opportunity for the leading figures in this renaissance of research in the area to gather and present all the key new projects which are revolutionising our understanding of the region. The following papers are available to download in Open Access: Current Investigations into the Early Neolithic of the Zagros Foothills of Iraqi Kurdistan - Roger Matthews, Wendy Matthews, Kamal Rasheed Raheem and Kamal Rauf Aziz: Download About Bakr Awa - Peter A. Miglus: Download

This is the first full biography of James Rendel Harris (1852-1941), Bible and patristic scholar, manuscript collector, Quaker theologian, devotional writer, traveller, folklorist, and relief worker. Drawing on published and unpublished sources gathered in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, many of which were previously unknown, Alessandro Falcetta tells the story of Harris's life and works set against the background of the cultural and political life of contemporary Britain. Falcetta traces the development of Harris's career from Cambridge to Birmingham, the story of his seven journeys to the Middle East, and of his many campaigns, from religious freedom to conscientious objection. The book focuses upon Harris's innovative contributions in the field of textual and literary criticism, his acquisitions of hundreds of manuscripts from the Middle East, his discoveries of early Christian works - in particular the Odes of Solomon - his Quaker beliefs and his studies in the cult of twins. His enormous output and extensive correspondence reveal an indefatigable genius in close contact with the most famous scholars of his time, from Hort to Harnack, Nestle, the 'Sisters of Sinai', and Frazer.

This volume is primarily concerned with the re-analysis of the wall paintings from the Jordanian Chalcolithic period (ca. 4700-3700 BC) settlement site of Teleilat Ghassul, first excavated in 1929 by scholars from the Pontifical Biblical Institute Rome and latterly by Australians from the University of Sydney. The seven major paintings were re-analysed using a methodology based on contextualisation, digital reconstruction, experimental replication and subject analysis. A comprehensive theoretical framework was constructed from published and unpublished materials from the site, consisting of geographical and environmental datasets, topographic, settlement-location and structural contexts. These included material/artefactual associations, technological issues and a comprehensive symbolic regional comparative analysis of the artworks themselves. The interpretive structure, reconstructed and re-evaluated scenes, and replication studies, have revealed numerous insights into the artistic traditions and cultic practices of South Levantine Ghassulian Chalcolithic culture, with considerable relevance to the ongoing debate on such matters as prehistoric societal makeup and art historical scholarship. This study has provided intriguing glimpses into the lives of a brilliantly artistic and deeply ritualised society, shedding new light on this little-known and still mysterious people.

This volume is a tribute to the career of Professor Olivier Rouault who has conducted extensive research in the fields of both Assyriology and Ancient Near Eastern archaeology. The book is composed of 25 papers written by his colleagues, friends and former students from Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands, Poland, Syria and the United States. The contributions presented here combine archaeological, iconographic and Assyriological studies from the Neolithic to the 1st millennium BC, covering whole of Mesopotamia and regions of Anatolia and the Levant. Nine papers deal with the data of Terqa, Mari and Qasr Shemamok, sites close to Professor Olivier Rouault's main field of research. He published cuneiform tablets from Mari and Terqa and worked as a director of archaeological missions at Terqa and Qasr Shemamok. The book is divided into six main topics: Palace and Administration, Temples and Cults, Families and Societies, Literatures and Historiography, Representation and Symbolic Aspects, Cultural Markers and Stratigraphy - all the topics that attracted Professor Olivier Rouault during his fruitful career. More intimate texts recounting memories of moments shared with Olivier punctuate the reading of these contributions.

Turtles, ibexes, ships, inscriptions... Thousands of engraved and painted figures intrigue visitors in the wadis of Al-Hajar Mountains. Who created these enigmatic figures and when were they made? What are their hidden meanings? For the first time, this volume tries to answer these questions. It is the result of the archaeological surveys and investigations undertaken by the author over the last ten years under the patronage of the Ministry of Heritage and Culture. In this book, the author takes the reader on an in-depth journey into the various themes present in the rock art of Oman. He offers theories on the chronology and interpretation, while exploring the landscape setting of the decorated panels and how best to research these. Several beautiful photographs and scientific tracings of the rock art accompany the text. The volume closes offering to enthusiasts and tourists a series of guided visits with GPS maps to the most interesting and visible rock art sites protected by Royal Decrees of the Sultanate.